Medilytix News Bureau:
Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp plan to triple their investment to jointly develop electric vehicles (EVs), two people with knowledge of the plan told Reuters.
As established automakers face pressure from new competitors and an expected shift in demand toward EVs, the French-Japanese alliance is seeking to deepen cooperation.
The three are expected to announce on Thursday a plan to invest more than 20 billion euros ($23 billion) over the next five years on EV development, the sources said. By 2030, the alliance is expected to come up with more than 30 new battery EVs underpinned by five common platforms, they said.
That is in addition to 10 billion euros the group has already spent on electrification, said the two people with knowledge of the plan.
Spokespeople for Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
The “Alliance to 2030” plan aims to show “intensified cooperation” among the automakers, highlighting a “shared vision on electrification and connected mobility,” one source said. The five common platforms are expected to cover 90% of EVs the companies are expected to develop and launch by 2030, the sources said.
The three-firm alliance has developed and partly deployed four common EV platforms.
One underpins EVs such as Nissan’s upcoming Ariya and Renault’s Megane EV, and another supports affordable no-frills cars by Nissan and its China market partner Dongfeng, as well as for Renault’s Dacia brand. The other two are platforms for micro minis, called “kei cars” in Japan, and light commercial vehicles.